


Can We Not?

by CherieoftheDragons (SignCherie)



Series: Carina Lee [3]
Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Zen is narcissistic, mc has a name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 16:45:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12988215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SignCherie/pseuds/CherieoftheDragons
Summary: After a very bad day, MC just can't deal with Zen's narcissism.





	Can We Not?

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt from Aphreal: "I want to annoy you for the rest of my life." I switched the wording around a little bit -- I don't think she'll mind.

Carina was exhausted. The interpreting job she’d been booked for had turned out to be an hour longer than she’d been told, and the subject matter was twice as intense. She came home wanting nothing more than to drop into bed and sleep for days. No, she wanted to climb into a hot bath and relax with some soothing music.

Yes, that sounded perfect.

She pushed open the door to hear the comforting hum of Zen’s voice drifting out from the bathroom in a tuneless melody. As the door clicked shut behind her, the sound trailed off.

“Babe?”

“Yup.” Carina hung up her keys, took off her shoes, and padded into the apartment, stopping to lean against the wall in the hallway across from the open bathroom door. Zen stood in front of the mirror, as beautiful as ever, tilting his head from side to side as he gazed at his own reflection.

She waited for him to turn away and look at her, but he was apparently too engrossed in himself to notice. “I keep thinking I’m going to get in trouble for being this good-looking,” he said to the mirror. “Honestly, it’s such a problem. I got stopped by some women at the subway today. I thought they must be fans of mine, but it turned out they just wanted a picture with me because I was so handsome. What am I supposed to do? It’s like a curse.”

On her more insecure days, Carina would have to push down a twinge of jealousy at the attention Zen attracted from other women. Today, however, was not one of those days. Her brain had gone numb from her difficult assignment, and she was too worn out to worry about anything other than finally finding a way to relax.

“A curse.” She nodded her agreement without really thinking about it. “Babe, do you mind if I--”

A huge sneeze cut her off, and she paused while Zen reached for a tissue and blew his nose loudly. “Sorry, honey. One of those ladies from the subway had a cat, and apparently she’s never heard of a lint roller.”

“That’s okay. I was just going to say --”

Another sneeze, followed by another, and when Zen finally was able to breathe again, he sighed dramatically. “This allergy is really a tragedy. But at least my eyes haven’t gone puffy. It’s best when nothing disturbs the natural beauty of my features, wouldn’t you agree?”

He glanced away from the mirror now to give her a mischievous sidelong grin. “Whatever shall we do?” He put a hand over his forehead as if he might swoon. “My looks are such a distraction. I’m afraid the police might come to arrest me for creating a public disturbance one of these days.”

Eyes crinkled with amusement, he waited for her response.

She knew what he expected. He wanted her to fawn over him and tell him how gorgeous he was. He was waiting for her to shower him with exaggerated compliments about his lovely face.

Most of the time, It was a game she enjoyed playing. As ridiculous as he was, there was a childlike playfulness in his manner that went straight to her heart. It was a harmless way to reassure him that she appreciated him, and the affection he showered on her in response was more than enough to make it all worth it.

Tonight, though. Tonight she was tired, and cranky, and annoyed. The only thing she wanted was to soak herself in the tub and let her frustrations melt away. And Zen -- he hadn’t even noticed how tensed up she was. He was too preoccupied with his own attractiveness to bother looking at her at all.

“Can we not?” she found herself snapping.

Zen blinked at her, the smile fading from his face. “What?”

“Can we not pretend like your face is the center of the world?”

He looked as if he’d been slapped. “Oh.” The word came out on a shaky breath.

Instantly, she felt guilty, but she just didn’t have the energy to deal with his ego. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “Look. I’m going to take a bath, all right? We can talk after that.”

He nodded mutely and stepped into the hallway, sad eyes watching her as she marched past. God. She was a jerk for being so harsh, and a bigger jerk for walking away from him now, but if she didn’t calm down a bit, she’d just make things worse, and she didn’t want to start a shouting match over nothing. So she closed the door behind her, set a relaxing playlist on the her phone, and started the water running.

 

 

A half hour later, when Carina emerged from the bathroom, she felt like shit. Her bath had been anything but relaxing knowing that Zen was in the other room, hurting because of her words. Sure enough, she found him sitting on the sofa, hunched forward with his forearms resting on his thighs, a beer in one hand and his phone in the other. He wasn’t looking at his phone, however. He was staring at his beer, an empty look on his face.

“Zen.”

He looked up at his name, and she noticed with alarm that his eyes were slightly red. Had her words been that bad? She’d made him cry?

Cursing herself inwardly, she sat gingerly beside him on the sofa, taking his phone and his still-full beer from his hands to place them on the coffee table, then clasped both hands with her own.

His lips twitched. “I’m sorry.”

That caught her off-guard. “Sorry?”

“For being selfish and self-absorbed. For pretending that my looks actually matter.” He blinked as if tears were threatening to spill, sending a jolt of alarm through her, and turned his head away. “I know better than that. I’m arrogant and insensitive and pathetic, and I’m sorry.”

Damn, she’d handled this all wrong. She’d forgotten what his vanity stemmed from, forgotten why he placed such importance on a quality that he didn’t actually value at all.

Her hands squeezed his gently. “What happened today?” she asked quietly.

Startled, he looked back at her.

“Did something happen at rehearsal?”

“I -- How did you know?”

A soft chuckle escaped her lips. “I know you, that’s all. Do you want to talk about it?”

Zen’s fingers tightened around hers. “The subway was delayed, and I got there half an hour late. The understudy was filling in for me, and -- he was really good. Everyone was talking about him.”

Ah. No wonder his confidence was so low today, and he was trying so hard to bolster it. Carina wished she had a magic wand to make all his insecurities disappear, but the only thing she could do right now, as insignificant as it may be, was to listen and support him.

“They kept him in the role for an hour longer, and when I finally got up there, I was so flustered I couldn’t remember my lines. The director finally snapped that if I didn’t get it together, he was happy to replace me.”

“Oh, Zen.” Needing to reassure him, she tugged on his arms, pulling him into a hug. His arms slid around her waist, and he pressed his face against her shoulder.

“I’m pathetic, aren’t I?”

“Of course not. You had a bad day, that’s all. Everyone has them.”

“It’s my own fault, though, for not being prepared. The director had every right to be angry. I deserved what he said, and if someone else is better than me--”

“If the understudy was better than you,” she interrupted, “he would have gotten the role. But you’re the one they cast. And you’re the best actor I’ve ever seen.”

He huffed against her shoulder. “I think you’re biased.”

She pulled back and grinned mischievously, trying to coax a smile out of him. “Nope. It’s objective truth that you’re the most talented actor in the world. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.”

The laugh that escaped him lit up his face in a way that never failed to go straight to her heart. “Hearing you say it makes me feel like it might really be true. You’re too good to me, princess.”

He leaned forward to press a soft, chaste kiss to her lips, then pulled back just enough to look into her eyes. “So what about you? You had a bad day, too, didn’t you?”

With a groan, Carina told him about the nightmare job, and his subsequent indignance on her behalf chased away her frustration. How dare they take advantage of her by keeping her over the agreed time? How could they be so unprofessional as to mislead her on the nature of the assignment? Really, she ought to complain to the agency--

She laughed, cutting him off with a hard kiss that made him forget what he was saying. When they broke apart, his eyes were unfocused, and she was sure that her expression was just as dazed as his.

“I’m sorry I annoyed you,” he murmured.

She chuckled. “It’s all right. I want you to annoy me for the rest of my life.”

Zen let out an exaggerated sigh of relief and pulled her close so that her head was against his chest. “That’s good,” he told her matter-of-factly. “Because I’m pretty sure I will.”


End file.
